Theme: Meaning making, intertextuality and metaphors in opera - a case study of Unsuk Chin's opera Alice in Wonderland, Scene V - A Mad Tea-Party

Language: English

Speaker: Prof. Hippocrates CHENG

Host: Prof. Grace YU (CUHK-Shenzhen)

Date&Time: Mar. 4, 2025 (Tue.) 19:00

Venue: Lecture Classroom 102, Teaching Building (MUS)

Admission Free.

Visitors are requested to scan the QR code for registration.

Abstract

This lecture examines meaning-making, intertextuality, and metaphors in Unsuk Chin's opera Alice in Wonderland, Scene V - A Mad Tea-Party. Using Julia Kristeva's intertextuality theory and Gérard Genette's textual classifications, the lecture explores how Chin's work engages with Lewis Carroll's original text and its adaptations, such as Disney's 1951 film and the Royal Ballet's version. Chin's opera transforms Carroll's narrative into a unique operatic experience, blending Baroque and contemporary musical styles, text painting, and character-specific musical metaphors.

About the Speaker

Prof. Hippocrates CHENG (郑靖楠) is a composer, theorist, ethnomusicologist, and multi-instrumentalist from Hong Kong, China. He is currently an assistant professor of music theory and an affiliated faculty of Asian and Asian American Studies at Binghamton University.

As a composer, he writes contemporary classical music, new music for Asian instruments, and Jazz. As a researcher, he researches the music of Hong Kong SAR composer Doming Lam, East Asian and Southeast Asian music, piano rolls, and player piano in early Jazz history and Braille music notation. He has given guest lectures, masterclasses, and performances in the United States, Canada, Austria, Germany, China, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. 

Cheng started his musical journey by learning piano, violin, and clarinet in choir and ensembles. He later pursued his Bachelor of Music in composition at the Hong Kong Baptist University under the guidance of Prof. Christopher Coleman and Prof. Christopher Keyes. In 2018, with the support of the Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund, he received his Master's in Music Composition at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA) with distinction. His composition teachers included Prof. Clarence Mak and Prof. Cheung Pui Shan.

In 2024, he completed his Doctor of Music Composition with a minor in ethnomusicology at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music (IUJSOM) and is now working on his Ph.D. in music theory with a minor in Jazz studies at the same school. His composition teachers include Prof. Don Freund, Prof. David Dzubay, Prof. Eugene O'Brien, and Prof. Travers. He has been an associate instructor in music theory at IUJSOM since 2019 and taught as an adjunct faculty at IU Northwest in 2024. In June 2024, his Anti-Asian Hate chamber opera: "All of US" was premiered as the winning work commissioned by the Center for the Performing Arts in Carmel, Indiana.